The Internal Revenue Service doesn't believe it needs a search warrant to read your e-mail.

Newly disclosed documents prepared by IRS lawyers says that Americans enjoy "generally no privacy" in their e-mail, Facebook chats, Twitter direct messages, and similar online communications -- meaning that they can be perused without obtaining a search warrant signed by a judge.

That places the IRS at odds with a growing sentiment among many judges and legislators who believe that Americans' e-mail messages should be protected from warrantless search and seizure. They say e-mail should be protected by the same Fourth Amendment privacy standards that require search warrants for hard drives in someone's home, or a physical letter in a filing cabinet.

An IRS 2009 Search Warrant Handbook obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union argues that "emails and other transmissions generally lose their reasonable expectation of privacy and thus their Fourth Amendment protection once they have been sent from an individual's computer." The handbook was prepared by the Office of Chief Counsel for the Criminal Tax Division and obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

You got that right. If the congress wants to levy totalitarian taxes on the free citizens, they should try to collect them themselves. And they should bring their lunch. And a lantern. It’d be a long day.

An IRS 2009 Search Warrant Handbook . . . argues that "emails and other transmissions generally lose their reasonable expectation of privacy and thus their Fourth Amendment protection once they have been sent from an individual's computer."

No.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

While the Constitution is not a living document, the clear original intent is that letters require a warrant based on probable cause, and email is simply a letter that was not written on paper. A warrant is an absolute requirement here, and my level of disgust with the tyrant in our White House would hit the maximum possible level over this if it had not reached that level long ago. Obama is pure evil, and those like him who seek power in our government are not "public servants", they are America's enemies.

Note: My posts here are not private - not letters nor emails nor "papers" in the sense intended by Amendment IV - and they do not have the same level of protection. However, if the thugs in DC want my ip address and my identity, that is private and they need probable cause, and I have been very careful never to give them probable cause (nor would I say anything at all without a lengthy consultation with a lawyer and probably not even then if they came to "question" me based on an unlawful warrant).

21
posted on 04/10/2013 2:43:44 PM PDT
by Pollster1
(A war can only be just if it is fought with a reasonable chance of success.)

“generally no privacy” in their e-mail, Facebook chats, Twitter direct messages, and similar online communications”

I don’t care who comes out tomorrow and swears on a stack of Bibles that there IS privacy in those communications, I’ll still treat them as I do now - that they are at the very best ‘semi’ private. And I speak on them accordingly.

The IRS is not that smart. Come now the IRS is probably on Free Republic too. Gee Obama is so intelligent he is now reading my emails too. I hope so because i love to get on yahoo and respond to the idiots whom post so many times on the yahoo news story. I love to go back a report abuse when the call me a conservative whack job and other derogatory names not fit for FR.

"...Americans enjoy "generally no privacy" in their e-mail,..." So that means I can read email to and from the IRS, right? Somehow, I don't think they would buy into that premise. Goose. Gander. Tar. Feathers. TC

Congratulations. Finally Democrats are communists. We are controlled by the communists empire of King Obama and America is almost a total communists Nation. The Constitution and the rights are being trashed daily. Americans are so totally uninformed that as long as they have their games and perks they don’t give a shi!

1. Are you talking about purchases that exceed how much someone of your income level would make?
2. Are you claiming disability and talking about working at a day labor site?
3. Do you say you have no income but are dealing with lots of correspondence on your ebay sales?
4. Do you report very little income but have a flow of assignment notices from freelancing websites?

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